Ethanol has not been the miracle solution renewable-fuel advocates had hoped.

But there have been signs of progress since the Renewable Fuel Standard was created in 2005 and expanded in 2007.

The question now is whether strong ethanol opposition campaigns will cause irreparable damage to the program’s future before it has a chance to turn the corner.

The Environmental Protection Agency this year required oil refiners to produce 16.3 billion gallons of blended fuel — you’ve likely seen the stickers at the gas pump saying the gas contained a percentage of ethanol. In May, the EPA said it would bump production up to 17.4 billion gallons next year.

While that is a positive move, it remains far below the 22.3 billion gallons Congress has set as a target with the expectation of reaching 36 billion gallons by 2022.

It is also raising concerns the Obama administration is back-pedaling on the commitment to biofuels.

Now, just weeks from an anticipated announcement about the future for biofuel production, the program is finding itself in a heated debate over its value.

Television ads against the federal ethanol mandate have started airing in a number of Illinois television markets, and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council’s Center for Regulatory Solutions is calling the program harmful for the state.

In a report released last week, the center argues that fuel standard has increased fuel costs $5 billion in Illinois between 2005 and last year and would cost another $17 billion between now and 2024. The center also maintains the mandate has done little to improve harmful-gas emissions and has driven up the costs to dairy and poultry producers in the state who rely on ethanol’s main ingredient — corn — to feed their animals. According to the Center for Regulatory Solutions, cattle farmers spent $19 million more and dairy farmers spent $17 million more just in 2012 as a result.

“Washington’s corn ethanol mandate has been picking winners and losers for a decade,” said Center for Regulatory Solutions President Karen Kerrigan. “Contrary to conventional wisdom, our report shows that Illinois, an early supporter of ethanol, has lost thousands of jobs and incurred enormous economic costs as a result of the ethanol mandate.”

The report has raised the ire of such groups as the Illinois Corn Growers Association and Illinois Farm Bureau. They call the push to cut the biofuels program “a smear campaign” that is “heavy on rhetoric and short on facts.”